Review: The Outer Worlds 2 (PS5) – Mechanically Fantastic RPG Struggles to Be Memorable

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With The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian Entertainment is aiming to recapture the special RPG experience that made them a leading name in gaming.

Overall, this sequel successfully delivers on its promises. It offers a remarkable amount of player choice and meaningful consequences, surpassing many other modern role-playing games – and even the original Outer Worlds – in this regard.

The Outer Worlds 2 offers a lot to enjoy in how the game works, letting you create your own character, team up with different groups, and even influence what your companions think. As you play through its roughly 50-hour story, you’ll really see how your choices build upon each other and have a lasting impact.

Players will experience this game in unique ways. Success in many situations depends on your skills, and you’ll need to develop specific abilities to unlock conversations and interact with everything around you.

On top of all that, your character’s own sense of right and wrong comes into play. You’re not forced to be a hero, and there are many times when you’ll seriously think about using violence to get what you want.

The Outer Worlds 2 keeps you hooked with quests that offer lots of choices and conversations that constantly surprise you, pushing you to consider options you might have overlooked. When it’s at its best, it’s a truly captivating RPG that makes you carefully consider every decision.

There’s a problem, however, and it’s one that’s unfortunately baked into the series’ identity.

The sci-fi world of The Outer Worlds is a darkly humorous dystopia. The game takes place in colonies that have been cut off from Earth and are now controlled by either obviously villainous corporations or strange, ethically ambiguous groups. A conflict is brewing in the Arcadia system between two of these powerful factions.

Auntie’s Choice, with its extreme focus on profit, and The Order, driven by strict mathematical principles, both have noticeable weaknesses in their ideologies and how they organize society—and that’s what makes them compelling for players to investigate. There aren’t any simply right or wrong decisions to make.

The Outer Worlds relies heavily on exaggerated parody in its world-building, which sometimes weakens the emotional impact of the story. While the game doesn’t aim to be a deeply serious RPG tackling heavy themes, it’s hard to become invested in the different groups within the game because they all feel overly sarcastic.

This criticism isn’t just about the groups themselves, but also the people within them. Beyond a handful of important characters, it’s hard to remember anyone distinctly. Most feel like simple representatives of their group’s beliefs, making it difficult to connect with them as individuals or care about their problems.

Many of the characters in The Outer Worlds 2, unfortunately, aren’t very engaging. While the game is smart, well-written, and often humorous – qualities you’d expect from Obsidian – most characters lack depth beyond initial impressions and satirical jokes.

Unfortunately, your companions share the same unfortunate outcome. You play as the Commander, a character you can fully customize, and your crucial mission quickly falls apart during the game’s opening. The rest of the game focuses on trying to fix the disastrous results.

Throughout the game, you’ll meet various characters who can join your quest to save the system. However, recruiting allies is optional—you don’t need to enlist anyone’s help. It’s even possible to overlook potential teammates depending on the choices you make.

Honestly, I was a little let down by the allies you meet. Some of them had interesting little details that I liked, but none of them felt fully developed. And too many just ended up repeating the same ideas and beliefs of whatever group they belonged to – they weren’t really characters, just talking points for their faction. It’s a shame, because they had potential!

However, it’s good that the game offers individual quests for each party member, as they allow you to learn about – and even influence – how your companions think and feel. It’s these role-playing elements that make this part of the game work; while you might not always love these characters, being able to genuinely affect their growth adds a nice touch to your relationships with them.

The Outer Worlds 2 is a significant step up from the first game, offering a vast new experience. Instead of one main location, it features several fully explorable planets, each with its own unique map and plenty to discover.

While not as vast as some open-world games, these areas are still open for you to explore. You’re generally free to roam wherever you like, which is great because there are lots of side quests and hidden things to find. Exploring is a big improvement in this sequel – it’s refreshing to wander around after so many long conversations.

Fighting is a major element of the game. You’ll control a Commander and their team as they battle various alien creatures while traveling between locations. The combat itself has been significantly enhanced with faster, more responsive shooting and a much more robust system for using melee weapons, making it a core and improved part of the experience.

As a player, I’m really enjoying the improvements they’ve made! Guns actually feel powerful now, with a nice kick to them, and it’s much more satisfying seeing enemies react realistically when you hit them. It’s not totally flawless – sometimes things still feel a bit floaty – but overall, Obsidian has definitely upped their game. Plus, there are some awesome boss battles to get excited about!

Battles offer a lot of different ways to play. You can unlock ‘Gadgets’ by completing quests, and these work like special abilities with cooldowns. For example, one gadget can slow down time, another gives you a protective shield, and a third lets you spot enemies even when they’re hidden behind walls.

The gadgets don’t fundamentally change how The Outer Worlds plays, but they do add some fun character to the action. Combined with the game’s unusual weapons – think acid shotguns and a hammer powered by a roulette wheel – it’s clear the developers want players to enjoy a bit of chaotic fun.

It’s disappointing that your companions can sometimes be more trouble than they’re worth. Like the original game, the AI controlling your party members can be unreliable, often leaving them exposed or rushing recklessly into danger.

On the standard difficulty setting, your teammates can go down quickly if you don’t actively support them. The Outer Worlds 2 often throws a lot of enemies at you, particularly during key story moments, and this can sometimes make your companions more of a hindrance than a help.

While it doesn’t ruin the game, especially since skilled players can still create powerful strategies after a few hours, it’s definitely something the developers should address with future updates.

The Outer Worlds 2 appears to be technically sound overall, though we encountered a few frustrating issues with the user interface. We also had a couple of quests that stopped working, which meant we had to reload an earlier save. These were relatively small problems, but they did become noticeable over time.

The game offers standard graphics options on PS5: Quality or Performance mode. Quality mode limits the frame rate to 30 frames per second, which isn’t ideal for a fast-paced combat game. Performance mode runs at a smoother 60 frames per second, but with less detailed environments.

When you choose Performance mode for better speed, details like moving grass are simplified or disappear, which can be noticeable and a bit jarring. Objects also tend to appear more suddenly in the distance. While it improves how the game runs, it’s not a perfect visual experience.

The Outer Worlds 2 looks noticeably improved over the original, but character faces still appear somewhat artificial and their expressions aren’t very detailed. While the game features stunning skies and each planet has a unique style, the graphics aren’t quite as sharp when you look closely, appearing a bit dated.

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2025-10-23 16:08